Tim Walz swept onto the national stage in the summer of 2024 as the vice-presidential nominee for the Democratic party. In the wake of Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election, and the party closing ranks around Kamala Harris as their new presidential hopeful, the major question became: who will stand beside her and complete the Democratic ticket?
Before throwing his hat in the ring during the 2024 presidential elections, Walz was making waves on a state level as Governor of Minnesota. Elected in 2018, the former army veteran and teacher’s kitchen-table politics have made a positive impact in the homes and lives of millions of Americans. From providing free school lunches throughout the state to strengthening public safety and gun control, and from investments in clean energy and technology to university education, he has set Minnesota on a course distinctly at odds with the Executive Branch of American politics.
Walz stands at a crossroads. Despite electoral defeat on the national stage, he is back in Saint Paul with a new challenge on his hands: how to serve Minnesotans and navigate his state through the political upheaval coming from the White House? Join us with an evening in conversation with Tim Walz in two parts, highlighting his domestic and personal profile as well as the challenges and opportunities for Minnesota, and for the United States in general.
Program information
Laila Frank is a journalist, podcaster and America expert. She will interview Governor Walz on domestic and state politics, including his initiatives for Minnesota, as well as the past presidential and vice-presidential elections and what the future holds for his state.
Anna van Zoest is the Director of the Netherlands Atlantic Association and will turn to matters of foreign policy in the second part of the interview. Topics will include the power of states to act on the world stage, including trade, NATO and the transatlantic relationship.
Questions from the audience need to be submitted in advance via this online form for inclusion in the interview.
Read, Watch, Listen: Looking for background information in advance of the event? Read Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom (2010), a poignant and darkly comic portrayal of the seductions and struggles of freedom through the eyes of a St. Paul, Minnestoa family at the dawn of the new millennium. Watch: The Emigrants (2021). Based on Vilhelm Moberg’s classic novel, the film explores the transatlantic journey of a Swedish family enticed by the promise of free land in a booming Minnesota of the mid-nineteenth century, fleeing economic hardship, religious persecution and social oppression. Listen to Bruce Springsteen’s We Take Care of Own, a song that dives into the platitudes and the promises of American civic nationalism and asks the question: “why are we as Americans not living up our professed ideals?”